Autolyse:In a large bowl weigh out 1,000 grams of flour, 200 grams of active sourdough starter, 650 grams of warm filtered water, and 20 grams of salt. Wash your hands and give this a good mix. You don’t want to knead the dough, you just want to combine all the ingredients together so there are no dry streaks of flour. The dough will be very sticky, you might be tempted to add more flour. But trust the process! do not add more flour than what the recipe is asking for close the bowl with a lid and let the sourdough bread mixture rest for 1 hour. You don’t want a tight seal on the sourdough. You still want some air to circulate into the dough, to help ferment it. Yet you don’t want the dough to develop a hard crust either.
Stretch & Fold:Place your hands under the sourdough, and with both hands stretch the sourdough up as far as it will let you. Be gentle not to rip the dough, then fold it over to the middle of the bowl. repeat this process on all sides. Once you have stretched and folded all sides of the sourdough, cover with the lid and let rest for 45 minutes. Repeat steps 2 & 3, three times. After 3 stretch and fold, cover the dough and let it rest for another 45 minutes., Gently take out the sourdough on a clean counter top. Make sure not to dust any flour on the counter top. Once the dough is out of the bowl, take a bench scraper and divide the dough into two equal pieces.
Once its divided- cover the dough with a tea towel and let it rest for 10 minutes. This step will ensure that your dough relaxes so its easier to work with.
Shaping Your Dough:Take your first dough and with your hands stretch the sourdough out on a clean counter top into a circle It will be a little sticky, but make sure to not add any additional flour. if the sourdough is too sticky to work with use your bench scraper to help. Take one side of the sourdough and fold it over to the center, then fold over the opposite side.
Once the two sides are folded, roll the dough into a ball. then seal the ends. Tuck the ends underneath the dough to form a ball.
After the sourdough is formed into a ball start to twist the dough on the table to create tension on the bottom of it. This helps to close up any open holes. Repeat the same process on the other dough.
Now that your sourdough is shaped into a ball- lightly flour your proofing basket.
flip your sourdough with the bottom facing up into your basket or bowl. Pinch to seal any holes. Dust the Sourdough ball with a little bit of flour.
Cover with saran wrap and place a tight lid on top, so air cant get inside. Repeat the same process for the other loaf.
Cold Ferment:Place in the fridge for an overnight fermentation, or at least 12 hours. Preparing to Bake:Place a Dutch oven into the oven with the lid closed and preheat the oven to 500F Take your loaf out of the fridge and gently flip your dough onto parchment paper.
Score the sourdough loaf using a sharp razor. Make one big score down the middle, leaving 1 inch of boarder on both sides. (top to bottom)
Baking Your Sourdough:Take out the Dutch oven from the oven, Place the sourdough bread into the Dutch oven with the parchment paper, close the lid. Put the Dutch oven back into the oven, Bake for 30 minutes at 500F
After 30 minutes remove the lid from the Dutch oven and lower your heat to 450F and bake an additional 3-10 minutes depending on how much color you want on your sourdough bread.
Take out your sourdough bread from the oven, and place it on a cooling rack for 2 hours before you slice into it.
